The present invention is in the art of telecommunications including data-network-telephony (DNT) which encompasses Internet-protocol-network-telephony (IPNT), and pertains more particularly to methods and apparatus for providing dynamic cross-network translation between communications applications hosted either on a data-packet-network or on a telephony network.
In the field of telephony communication, there have been many improvements in technology over the years that have contributed to more efficient use of telephone communication within hosted call-center environments. Most of these improvements involve integrating the telephones and switching systems in such call centers with computer hardware and software adapted for, among other things, better routing of telephone calls, faster delivery of telephone calls and associated information, and improved service with regards to client satisfaction. Such computer-enhanced telephony is known in the art as computer-telephony integration (CTI).
Generally speaking, CTI implementations of various design and purpose are implemented both within individual call-centers and, in some cases, at the telephone network level. For example, processors running CTI software applications may be linked to telephone switches, service control points (SCP), and network entry points within a public or private telephone network. At the call-center level, CTI-enhanced processors, data servers, transaction servers, and the like, are linked to telephone switches and, in some cases, to similar CTI hardware at the network level, often by a dedicated digital link. CTI and other hardware within a call-center is commonly referred to as customer premises equipment (CPE). It is the CTI processor and application software is such centers that provides computer enhancement to a call center.
In a CTI-enhanced call center, telephones at agent stations are connected to a central telephony switching apparatus, such as an automatic call distributor (ACD) switch or a private branch exchange (PBX). The agent stations may also be equipped with computer terminals such as personal computer/video display unit""s (PC/VDU""s) so that agents manning such stations may have access to stored data as well as being linked to incoming callers by telephone equipment. Such stations may be interconnected through the PC/VDUs by a local area network (LAN). One or more data or transaction servers may also be connected to the LAN that interconnects agent stations. The LAN is, in turn, connected to the CTI processor, which is connected to the call switching apparatus of the call center.
When a call arrives at a call center, whether or not the call has been pre-processed at an SCP, typically at least the telephone number of the calling line is made available to the receiving switch at the call center by the network provider. This service is available by most networks as caller-ID information in one of several formats such as Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS). If the call center is computer-enhanced (CTI) the phone number of the calling party may be used as a cross-reference key to access additional information from a customer information system (CIS) database at a server on the network that connects the agent workstations. In this manner information pertinent to a call may be provided to an agent, often as a screen pop, and in some cases prior to a call being connected to the agent.
Proprietorship of CTI equipment both at individual call-centers and within a telephone network can vary widely. For example, a phone company may provide and lease CTI equipment to a service organization hosting a number of call-centers. A telecommunications company may provide and lease CTI equipment and capability to an organization hosting call centers. In many cases, a service organization (call center host) may obtain and implement it""s own CTI capability and so on.
In recent years, advances in computer technology, telephony equipment, and infrastructure have provided many opportunities for improving telephone service in publicly-switched and private telephone intelligent networks. Similarly, development of a separate information and packet data network known as the Internet, together with advances in computer hardware and software have led to a new multi-media telephone system known in the art by several names. In this new systemology, telephone calls are simulated by multi-media computer equipment, and data, such as audio data, is transmitted over data networks as data packets. In this application the broad term used to describe such computer-simulated telephony is Data Network Telephony (DNT).
For purposes of nomenclature and definition, the inventors wish to distinguish clearly between what might be called conventional telephony, which is the telephone service enjoyed by nearly all citizens through local telephone companies and several long-distance telephone network providers, and what has been described herein as computer-simulated telephony or data-network telephony. The conventional system is familiar to nearly all, and is often referred to in the art as Plain Old Telephony Service (POTS). In the POTS system calls are connection oriented lending to the preferred terminology, connection-orientated-switched-telephony or COST. The COST designation will be used extensively herein when describing typical connection orientated networks or calls.
The computer-simulated, or DNT systems, are familiar to those who use and understand computer systems. Perhaps the best example of DNT is telephone service provided over the Internet, which will be referred to herein as Internet Protocol Network Telephony (IPNT), by far the most extensive, but still a subset of DNT. DNT is a term used to describe basically any type of packet switched network whether public or private. Examples of DNT networks include the public Internet, Intranets, private company owned wide area networks (WANs), and so on. These DNT networks may operate using several differing or combined protocol, but generally are supportive of DNT.
Both systems use signals transmitted over network links. In fact, connection to data networks for DNT such as IPNT is typically accomplished over local telephone lines, used to reach such as an Internet Service Provider (ISP). The definitive difference is that COST telephony may be considered to be connection-oriented as previously described. In the COST system, calls are placed and connected by a specific dedicated path, and the connection path is maintained over the time of the call. Bandwidth is thus assured. Other calls and data do not share a connected channel path in a COST system. A DNT system, on the other hand, is not connection oriented or dedicated in terms of bandwidth. That is, data, including audio data, is prepared, sent, and received as data packets. The data packets share network links, and may travel by varied and variable paths.
Under ideal operating circumstances a DNT network, such as the Internet, has all of the audio quality of conventional public and private intelligent telephone-networks, and many advantages accruing from the aspect of direct computer-to-computer linking. However, DNT applications must share the bandwidth available on the network in which they are traveling. As a result, real-time voice communication may at times suffer dropout and delay (latency). This is at least partially due to packet loss experienced during periods of less-than-needed bandwidth which may prevail under certain conditions such as congestion during peak periods of use, and so on.
Recent improvements to available technologies associated with the transmission and reception of data packets during real-time DNT communication have enabled companies to successfully add DNT, principally IPNT capabilities to existing CTI call centers. Such improvements, as described herein and known to the inventor, include methods for guaranteeing available bandwidth or quality of service (QoS) for a transaction, improved mechanisms for organizing, coding, compressing, and carrying data more efficiently using less bandwidth, and methods and apparatus for intelligently replacing lost data via using voice supplementation methods and enhanced buffering capabilities.
In typical call centers, DNT is often accomplished via Internet connection wherein IPNT calls may be placed or received. Call centers may also be linked to sub-networks, including private networks that are linked to the Internet. Data packets arrive at the call center after having traveled from node-to-node through the DNT network or networks, and must be sorted and simulated at the call center on a PC/VDU (computer with display), or DN-capable telephone. DNT-capable call centers are more appropriately termed communication centers in the art because of the added scope of media possibilities presented therein. Therefore, the term communication center will be used extensively hereinafter when describing a call center.
In systems known to the inventors, incoming IPNT calls are processed and routed within an IPNT-capable call-center in much the same way as COST calls are routed in a CTI-enhanced center, using similar or identical routing rules, waiting queues, and so on, aside from the fact that there are two separate networks involved. Call centers having both CTI and IPNT capability utilize LAN-connected agent-stations with each station having a telephony-switch-connected headset or phone, and a PC connected, in most cases via LAN, to the network carrying the IPNT calls. Therefore, in most cases, IPNT calls are routed to the agent""s PC while conventional telephony calls are routed to the agent""s conventional telephone or headset. Typically separate lines and equipment must be implemented for each type of call weather COST or IPNT.
Much has been accomplished with regard to increasing the intelligence and capability of COST telephony at the network level before calls arrive at a call center. However, no such inroads have been made with regard to DNT telephony at network level. This is in part due to the nature of data-packet networks wherein data travels by varied and variable routes. Generally speaking, routing within a DNT network is indiscriminate from node to node with only the next destination address of the next node as a routing guideline for individual packets.
In COST systems known to the inventor, intelligent routing rules have been extended into the public network domain principally via the addition of CTI processing capability at the network level. For example, SCPs may be enhanced with a processor running varied software routines adapted to increase intelligence in call handling. Intelligent peripherals, statistical servers, transactional servers, and the like give added control regarding call handling to individual communication centers that support complimentary equipment and software.
Of particular notice is the recent implementation of T-server function (known to the inventor) within COST networks allowing the communication center to exert control over standard telephony switches and routers involved in routing both incoming and outgoing communication. The CTI processor renders the proprietary nature of many of these switches and routers as a non-factor with regards to compatibility with each other. Hence, the implementation renders systems platform-independent. These CTI Processors, known to the inventors as T-server functions (largely software) installed in the switch or router-connected processors can communicate with each other via a separate digital network that links the processors and routers to each other and to similar equipment in the communication center. In this way, call identification, destination verification, importance or priority of the call, and who best to deliver the call to may be decided before the call arrives in the domain of the communication center. Moreover, information about the call and the calling party may be routed ahead of the actual call so that agent""s are better prepared to handle the call.
An integrated telephony network (DNT/COST) is known to the inventor and listed in the cross-reference section above. The network in that co-pending case includes both a connection-oriented switched telephony (COST) network and a data network telephony (DNT) network. The two separate networks are connected by a dual-ported interactive voice response (IVR) server. The ports of the IVR server are adapted to communicate with callers from each (either) network. In this architecture, a dual-ported translating bridge unit is provided and adapted to bi-directionally translate between the data protocols of the connected networks. Each network has at least one service control point (SCP) connected to the IVR, and calls received in either network are routed to the IVR typically for eliciting information from the caller. Further routing, either in the receiving network or over the translating bridge unit into and through the opposite network, is performed according to the information elicited from the caller. An SCP in the DNT network is implemented by connecting a computer-telephony integration (CTI) server to at least one IP (Internet Protocol) router in the DNT. The DNT network may be the Internet and the COST network can be any publicly switched telephone network.
The use of interactive voice response (IVR) units in telephony and in integrated telephony has dramatically increased as evident in the above-described system known to the inventor. By utilizing IVR functions in both DNT and in COST networks, communication center (CC) operators are able to reduce their costs. Another ongoing development is an ability to access communication center contacts through Internet-based interaction with an Interactive Web page. This activity also reduces CC cost for dedicated connections.
One problem with traditional communication center access where it concerns Web-based access is that typically the services are completely separate physically from the normal IVR interaction service established for CC clients accessing through a COST network. Moreover, even with a dual-capable IVR, the experience of clients on either side is remarkably different in interface technology and as a result, user experience.
What is clearly needed is a method and apparatus that enables a client accessing an integrated telephony/DNT communications center through the DNT side of the network to navigate to a COST IVR system according to standard IVR functions and results as is perceived by clients accessing the center through COST interaction. Such a system would function to unite communication center goals toward treatment of both COST and DNT sourced communications into the center.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a network-based system for emulating interaction with an interactive voice response unit is provided. The system comprises, a client node connected to the network, the client node for soliciting interaction with the interactive voice response unit and a proxy server node connected to the network, the server node accessible to client node, the interactive voice response unit accessible to the server node. A client operating the client node establishes a connection with the proxy server node, the proxy server node excepts data input from the client node and translates the data input into a format for interacting with the interactive voice response unit whereupon the translated input data is then propagated to the interactive voice response unit and wherein response data resulting from the translated and propagated input is then propagated to the proxy server node whereupon the response data is translated into a format for dissemination at the client node and propagated thereto.
In a preferred embodiment the system is implemented on the Internet network. In a preferred aspect, the client node is a personal computer and the interactive voice response unit is hosted by a communications center. In one aspect, the format for interacting with the interactive voice response unit is telephone touch-tone recognition. In another aspect, the format for interacting with the interactive voice response unit is voice recognition. In one aspect, the response data resulting from the translated and propagated input is an analog voice recording. In this aspect, the analog voice recording is translated into a digital voice file before propagation to the client node. The digital voice file may be one of a WAV file, an MPEG file, or an H.323 protocol audio stream, or any other equivalent format.
In another aspect, the network-based system further comprises a second server node connected to the network, the second server node accessible to client node, the proxy server node accessible to the second server node. In this aspect the second server node interfaces with the client node and upon determination of need opens a connection with the proxy server node for interactive voice response interaction. In this aspect, the proxy server has access to digital documents held at the communications center hosting the interactive voice response unit. Also in this aspect, digital documents are accessed and served to client node along with the response data from the interactive voice response unit, determination for serving the documents based on need.
In another aspect of the present invention, a distributed software application for emulating interaction with an interactive voice response unit is provided. The software application comprises a client portion of the software application residing on a client node connected to a data-packet-network and a network portion of the software application residing on a proxy server node connected to the data-packet-network. The client portion of the software application identifies and transmits data input from the client node to the network portion of the software application at the proxy server node whereupon the network portion of the software application translates the data input into input acceptable to the interactive voice response unit, the network portion of the software application calling the interactive voice response unit and propagating the translated input data thereto and wherein the network portion of the software application receives response data from the interactive voice response unit and translates that data into response data acceptable to the client node and propagates the response data to the client node for dissemination.
In a preferred embodiment, the interactive voice response unit is hosted by a communications center and the data-packet-network is the Internet network. In a preferred aspect, the client node is a personal computer. In one aspect, the format for interacting with the interactive voice response unit is telephone touch-tone recognition. In another aspect, the format for interacting with the interactive voice response unit is voice recognition. In still another aspect, the response data comprises an analog voice recording. In this aspect, the response data acceptable to the client node comprises a one of a WAV file, an MPEG file, or an H.323 protocol audio stream.
In another aspect, the distributed software application further comprises a portion of the software hosted by the communications center and residing within a Web server also hosted by the communications center. The communications center portion of the distributed software application serves as an interface between the client portion of the software and the network portion of the software. In this aspect, the communications center portion of the distributed software application determines if there is a need for interactive voice response unit interaction at the beginning of a session between the client portion of the software and the communications center portion of the software.
In still another aspect of the present invention, a method for simulating interaction with an interactive voice response unit for a client operating on a data-packet-network is provided. The method comprises steps of, (a) establishing a data connection on the data-packet-network between the client and a server connected to the data-packet-network, the server functioning as a translation interface between the client and the interactive voice response unit, (b) accepting input data from the client at the server and translating the input data to a form acceptable to the interactive voice response unit, (c) establishing a connection between the server and the interactive voice response unit, (d) sending the translated input data received from the client to the interactive voice response unit, (e) receiving response data from the interactive voice response unit at the server and translating the response data into a form acceptable to the client, and (f) sending the translated response data to the client for dissemination.
In a preferred aspect of the method in step (a), the client is a personal computer and the data network is the Internet network. In one aspect, in step (a), the interactive voice response unit is hosted in a connection-oriented-switched-telephone network and the interfacing link between the server and interactive voice response unit is a CTI link. In another aspect of the method in step (b), the data form acceptable to the interactive voice response unit is telephone touch-tone signaling. In still another aspect of the method in step (b), the data form acceptable to the interactive voice response unit is voice recognition. In still another aspect of the method in step (b), the voice recognition function of the interactive voice response unit responds to computer-simulated voice. In one aspect of the method in step (c), the established connection is a telephony connection. In another aspect, the established connection is a data connection. In step (e), the data form acceptable to the client, in preferred aspects, comprises one of a WAV file, an MPEG file, or an H.323 protocol audio stream.
Now, for the first time, a method and apparatus is provided that enables a client accessing an integrated telephony/DNT communications center through the DNT side of the network to navigate a COST IVR system according to standard IVR function and results as is perceived by clients accessing the center through COST interaction. Such a system functions to unite communication center goals toward treatment of both COST and DNT sourced communications into the center.